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Friday, July 29, 2011

The Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has broken new ground by calling on Canadians to help our law enforcement agencies locate 30 individuals who are suspected war criminals living in Canada. And, apparently, Canadians are only too eager to help.

“Every single one of these individuals has had the benefit of due process in Canada’s extraordinarily fair legal system.”

– Jason Kenney Immigration Minister

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews should be commended for his decision to release the identity of 30 suspects Canada wants to deport, and Canadians should be grateful for his common sense and concern for our safety. Since publishing the wanted list on the Canada Border Services Agency’s (CBSA) web site, five individuals have been apprehended.

One would think that, in a democracy, citizens would believe they have an obligation to assist in any way they can to keep their country safe and free from foreigners who might have violated human or international rights elsewhere. And I suspect most Canadians would see this obligation as reasonable.

Not our national broadcaster, however. Inexplicably, the CBC has decided not to show the released names and photos of the wanted men. According to the Toronto Sun, “a CBC spokesman has said the state broadcaster will not release the names and faces because of their journalistic standards.” And “Evan Solomon from CBC’s Power and Politics show said there is not enough known about these individuals to release their identities.”

Nonsense.

The CBC is being disingenuous and engaging in crass politics, for we all know that news agencies across Canada, including the CBC, routinely release the identities of people wanted by police for serious offences.

As the Sun’s Brian Lilley wrote today:

“The men on this list are not random people selected because of where they come from or due to a political vendetta. They are men who are accused of serious crimes, deemed inadmissible to Canada and ordered out.”

The CBC’s decision to treat these undesirables as victims of what the CBC seems to believe is, in Lilley’s words, “a mean-spirited government” suggests to me that the state broadcaster has crossed the line in joining the political opposition to challenge and obstruct Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government and it’s policies purely for political reasons.

I watch Evan Solomon on the CBC’s Power and Politics show most weekdays. It was laughable watching him yesterday trying to drum up support for the CBC’s decision from the NDP MP for Windsor-Tecumseh, Joe Comartin. Neither Solomon nor Comartin could attack the government’s decision on its merits, so they chose to amble off on tangents and talk about how many of the suspects might already have left the country and how under-funded the CBSA was.

Truly pathetic as neither gave a convincing argument to support the politics being played by the CBC.

Some on the Power and Politics panel even tried to denigrate our law enforcement agencies, criticizing their ability to find the wanted men on their own, without the public’s help. Does the CBC and the opposition parties really believe the public’s help should never be sought by law enforcement? I doubt that.

What these folks don’t like is seeing the Conservative government and ministers Kenney and Toews getting it right and receiving credit for doing so. To Solomon, Comartin and their leftist friends, it’s like being forced to chew chalk.

4 comments
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While the argument in favour of publishing pictures speaks for itself,our Conservative Government has no wiggle room to complain about the CBC.When our Government goes along with forcing us to receive signals from the CBC and accepts cable companies supporting Al Jazera when a Canadian news network is blocked...we have a problem.I'm an active Conservative supporter, but I am getting tired about complaints against CBC when Mr Harper isn't influencing what's going on in the broadcast industry.If Minister Moore wants CBC to do something...deal with it!

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